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Small to mid-sized businesses have their work cut out for them, especially within their HR departments. These professionals wear several hats and hold numerous responsibilities, often beyond typical HR roles. They may end up feeling frazzled with depleted bandwidth and resources to navigate through numerous disparate systems and to personally manage employee information, including payroll, time and attendance, onboarding, recruiting, and everything else. But there are HR practices you should adopt to help them out.
When you add the updates to federal and state employment laws, like FLSA and OSHA, HR professionals are left with one big question, “Where do I start?”
With all these responsibilities, you get HR professionals desperately looking for ways to improve their workflow and free up their time from tedious tasks to more strategic initiatives. Luckily, there are strategies every HR professional working in a small to mid-sized business can use this year to distribute their workload in a more manageable way and keep on top of it all.
So, before you add “Evaluate HR Department” to your endless list of “to do’s,” take a look at this HR checklist and simplify your schedule.
1. Update your Employee Handbook
Your Employee Handbook should be updated annually. It’s something that is often overlooked, but immensely important for clear internal communication and appropriate employee relations. As you look through it, take some time to review:
- overtime rules
- company policies
- vacation days
- company hours
- other important information
By doing so, you will not only update rules and policies but also refresh your mind on what employees are being told.
2. Check Your HR System
Your HR management system should solve your problems, not add to them. HR pros are responsible for looking out for employees, but who is looking out for you? Look for a solution that helps with all your HR and payroll needs – one platform that tracks EEO filing, overtime, benefits, PTO and ACA. If you already have a system or systems in place, take the time to evaluate them and see what is working and what isn’t, it may be time for a change. Your HR management system should work for you, not the other way around.
3. Have Process to Stay Compliant
Changes to employment laws happen every year and it’s important that you stay current. Look for changes in sick pay laws, ban the box rules, equal pay changes, minimum wage changes at the federal, state and city level. Then take an additional step and find a human capital management solution that can navigate today’s business compliance maze. Your future self will thank you for making things simple and efficient, especially when new law changes are introduced every year.
4. Schedule Management Training
You’ve reviewed the handbook, found an HCM system that works for your organization and streamlined processes, what’s next? Training. With updates and changes, management needs to be on the same page. If there are changes that impact current employees directly, be sure to review the specific changes and give the employee an updated employee handbook. Cover:
- termination rules
- overtime rules
- FMLA/ time off
- other updates
If there are no major changes or updates, it’s always wise to review and remind management and employees of current company policies annually.
Staying current on “all things HR” can be a daunting task. That’s why it’s important to not only look over employment laws, but also ensure your HR management system can keep up with the demands of the new changes. Now is the time to reevaluate, check things off and prepare yourself and your HR system for any change, so you can stay organized and keep your sanity.
GTM makes it easy to do all this with our human capital management platform, isolved. Request a free demo today.
